Shoe, process and making same, and shoe-part fastener



F, E.'VALOIS. SHOE, PROCESS OF MAKING SAME, AND SHOE PART FASTENEB- APPLlCATION FILED JULY 14, I919. 1,419,2998-- Patented 111116.20, 1922.

WITNESSESE INVENTOR zz/lmr Vi /0.47.

- ATTORNEY PATENT @ElfiQE.

FELIX EMILE VALOTS, OE BBIDGEPORT, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO HAMEL SHOE MACHINERY COMPANY, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

SHOE, PROCESS AND MAKING SAME, AND SHOE-PART FA'STENEB.

Application filed July 14,

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that 'L Fl lLiX E. Vnnors, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bridgeport, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Shoes, Processes of Making Same, and Shoe-Part Fasteners, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to an improved shoe, to a process of making the same and to a novel fastener employed in carrying such process into effect.

In the manufacture of the better grades of shoe in recent years it has been customary to attach the top-lift to the main body of the heel by means of wooden pegs, such pegs wearing down at nearly the same rate as the material of the top lift, and furthermore. being too soft to appreciably mar a varnished or polished floor, whereas metallic slugs or nails employed for this purpose soon project beyond the surface of the heel and cause discomfort to the wearer as well as the disfigurement of finished floors.

Most shoe manufacturers, however, are provided with machines for inserting the metallic slugs, such machines automatically feeding forward a strand of wire from a coil. cutting off a proper length to form an individual slug and driving the same into the heel. It is obviously impossible to adapt such a machine to the driving of wooden pegs, such operation necessitating the employment of a machine of entirely differcut character.

The necessity of securing an expensive machine of a different type precludes the use of wooden pegs by many of the smaller manufacturers who are usually supplied with the metallic slugging machines, and thus the use of this desirable form of fastener is restricted to the larger establishments.

The present invention contemplates the construction of a shoe in which the top lift is secured by means of non-metallic fasteners having all the desirable qualities of wooden pegs and which at the same time are capable of insertion by the use of the ordinary metallic slugging machine without substantial modification.

The invention seeks to facilitate the fastening of a top lift in the above manner Specification of Letters Patent. Patgntgd Jung 2Q, 1922 1919. Serial No. 310,719.

by providing a continuous strand of the fastening material, such strand being of the cross-section desired and in the .form of a coil which may be placed in the reel of the ordinary slugging machine and which may be fed, cut off and inserted in the same manner as a metallic fastener.

In the use of metallic slugs and wooden pegs the manufacturer is restricted in the range of colors at his disposal, the fasteners in many instances detracting from the appearance of the delicately tinted surface of the top lift.

The present invention. includes in its scope the production of a shoe in which the fasteners are of a material capable of production in an almost unlimited variety of colors and shades whereby the top lift may be secured by fasteners exactly matching its color or (g? a pleasingly contrasting shade, as desire Wooden pegs are sometimes employed for attaching the entire sole or heel and While desirable from some standpoints, are not only difficult to insert by automatic machinery, but when in place in the shoe are subject to the action of moisture to such an extent as to cause them at times to project on the inside of the shoe causing discomfort to the wearer, while the alternate swelling and shrinking of the pegs tends to loosen them, permitting separation of the shoe parts connected thereby.

The present invention contemplates the provision of a non-metallic fastener for the sole, heel, or top-lift which while possess ing the desirable features of a wooden peg is substantially unaffected by moisture and which .therefore possesses advantages in use over both the metallic and wooden fasteners heretofore employed.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention, together with full details of its method ofuse will be more fully set forth in the specification and particularly pointed out in the claims, reference being had to the annexed drawings as illustrating the mode of application of the present invention and in which Fig. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a shoe bottom including a sole and heel employing fasteners in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a coil of non-metallic wire in accordance with the present invention;

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a heel having its top lift attached in the usual manner by the use of metallic fasteners;

Fig. t is a view of a coil of wire such as is ordinarily employed in making heels of the type shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a heel in which wooden pegs are used as fasteners; and

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of a roll of wood veneer employed in a wooden peg driving machine.

As indicated in Fig. 3, reference character a indicates the sole of a shoe of usual construction having attached thereto the heel 1 provided with a top lift 2, the top lift being secured to the heel by means of a series of metallic fasteners in the form of short headless nails or slugs 8. These fasteners are usually driven automatically by a machine known as a slugging machine, this machine being provided with a reel or drum for the reception of a coil of wire such as shown at 10 in Fig. 4, this wire having the cross section of the slug which it is desired to use, the range of variations in cross section being, however, limited by the capabilities of the wire rolling process. These machines as usually constructed are provided with an awl or perforating point which forms a puncture in the top lift and heel. Upon the completion of this puncture a suitable length of the wire from the coil is fed forwardly by suitable gripping devices, cut off by severing mechanism, and driven into the puncture, thus serving as fastening means for securing the top lift to the heel. A shoe having the top lift thus secured is, however, somewhat objectionable, due to the fact that the leather of the top lift wears much more quickly than the metallic fasteners or slugs, the result being that the latter soon project beyond the surface of the top lift. These slugs when thus projecting form an extremely hard and inelastic support for the wearers foot in walking, and furthermore, cause great damage to finely finished floors, this latter feature being especially objectionable. 1

In order to overcome the above defects, manufacturers of fine shoes have resorted to the employment of wooden pegs for securing the top lift in position, a heel thus secured being indicated in Fig. 5 wherein the sole is indicated by the letter a, the heel by the numeral l: and the top lift by numeral 56 indicating the wooden pegs which are usually of substantially square cross section. As it is manifestly impossible to produce a continuous strip or coil of wood of a cross section suitable to cut pegs from in the usual slugging machine, a special type of machine has been devised for driving such pegs, and this machine must be supplied with a strip of wood veneer of. a width corresponding to the desired length of peg, such a strip be ing indicated in Fig. 6 at 11. The machine which employs this strip of Wood veneer automatically slices off a short section of the end of the coil as shown at 12, thus forming a peg which is driven by the machine into the previously formed perforation in the top lift and heel.

While the wood peg satisfactory in so far as avoiding the marring of finished floors is concerned, its use is objectionable in the following particulars: First, the necessity of employing a machine substantially different from the ordinary slugging machine places upon the manufacturer the burden of investing capital in two machines for performing substantially the same operation. Second, pegs of wood or similar absorbent material are subject to the objection that in absorbing moisture they. are caused to swell, thereby enlarging the opening in the connected shoe parts and upon shrinkage of the peg in drying the parts are readily loosened. Furthermore, when such pegs are used as a means for securing the entire heel to the shoe or for securing the shoe sole in position, the swelling of the peg may readily cause discomfort to the wearer by reason of the projection of the peg upon the interior of the shoe. Third, in driving wooden pegs into a sole for securing the same, it is difiicult to prevent their projection beyond the inner surface of the sole due to the variations in thickness of the latter and to the necessarily constant length of peg, thus necessitating a further process of removing the projecting ends of the pegs from the interior of the shoe. For the above reasons it is ob vious that while the wooden peg is superior in some respects to the metallic fastener, it is nevertheless not entirely satisfactory.

In accordance with the present invention a fastener has been produced which is capa:

ble of use in the ordinary slugging machine without substantial change therein, thus permitting the manufacturer to employ either metalic slugs or slugs made in ac" c rdance with this invention at will, while the slug employed in accordance with the present disclosure is of a character such that it wears substantially at the same rate as the top-lift, thus avoiding any marring 0t finished floors, being at the same time waterproof and unaffected by moisture, and capable of automatic variation in length in driving in the same manner as a metallic slug.

Metallic slugs as well as wooden pegs usually differ materially in color from the material of the top-lift, and the manufacturer is restricted to a verynarrow extent as to the color of fastener employed. It is within the scope of the present invention to provide slugs of a color which shall substantially match the color of the top lift regardless of the process of finishing the same or to provide slugs of a pleasingly contrasting color.

All the above advantages are attained by the employment of a wire similar in general respects to the metallic slugging wire but of a non-metallic material capable of being colored to substantially any shade and which at the same time is not affected by moisture. It has been found by experience that a wire of celluloid meets all the above requirements in a most satisfactory manner, and that such a wire is readily utilized in a slugging machine of the usual type.

It is obvious that a wire of celluloid may be made by known processes of manufacture of substantially endless length and of any desired cross-section and supplied in coils to the slugging machine in the same manner as the metallic wire. Also that such celluloid wire may be colored in any suitable manner and that the same when inserted in the shoe is waterproof and resistant to wear to much the same extent as the top-lift.

In the feeding forward of a relatively soft material such as celluloid the feeding grippers of the ordinary slugging machine serve to roughen or corru gate opposite sides there of and the slug so produced is found to secure a firmer grip upon the material of the .shoe than one having a smooth surface.

Fig. 1 represents a heel 7 secured to a sole (i and having its top lift 8 fastened by slugs 9 of celluloid, the shank portion of the sole being also similarly secured, Fig. 2 indicating the general appea 'ance of a coil of such celluloid wire 13. \Vhile celluloid has been found to be desirable, it is considered to be within the scope of the invention to provide a non-metallic wire of any suitable known substance having the above noted qualities of resistance to moisture, adaptability to the ordinary slugging machine and a resistance to wear substantially equal to that of the shoe sole.

While slugs may be cut from a coil by the machine automatically, it is also clear that independent fasteners in the form of short nails or cut from strips in the manner of wood pegs may be formed of celluloid and driven by hand or by machine if'desired and such mode of securing the parts of a shoe is regarded as within the scope of this invention.

In the driving of slugs automatimlly or by hand as above described, it is further contemplated that it may be desirable at times to subject the celluloid fastener momentarily to the action of a solvent solution, such for example as acetone which renders the surface of the fastener sticky or adhesive and driving the fastener immediately thereafter. Under such conditions upon the absorption or evaporation of the solvent the fastener will be secured in position in the substance of the shoe very firmly so that it is almost impossible to separate the parts of the shoe without tearing them. lVhile this latter step is contemplated as within the scope of the invention, it is to be understood that it is not necessary, but need only be resorted to under special circumstances.

While the present invention has been described more particularly as relating to a shoe having its top lift secured to the heel by the non-metallic fastener described, it is also within the scope of the invention to construct a shoe whose heel is attached to the shoe by similar means or wherein other parts of the shoe are connected by the use of independent non-metallic fasteners of the character described, as for example in the formation of what are known as pegged shoes wherein the sole is attached by means of pegs alone or by pegs in addition to stitches.

Having thus described the invention together with a preferred embodiment of the same and the process by which it is carried into effect what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States isl. A shoe having a bottom formed with a plurality of component parts, certain of said parts of the shoe bottom being connected by means of celluloid slugs.

2. The process of connecting shoe parts which consists of providing a slug of celluloid, treating the surface of the slug with a celluloid solvent, and inserting the slug in the parts to be connected while the surface of the slug is still under the effect of the solvent.

A slug or fastener for connecting shoe parts, said slug consisting of celluloid.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification.

FELIX EMILE VALOIS. 

